Friday, August 15, 2014

Big Cat Mishap conclusion . . . by Calamity Rene

No sooner had Andi walked into the ranch
yard when her new pet decided the chickens looked really interesting and began
to stalk the birds.

“No wait, stop!” Andi cried, but it was
too late. The lion raced towards the chicken coop and batted a very terrified
Henry the Eighth, who took off running and screeching. The lion chased after it
like an overgrown house cat playing with a mouse.

The commotion brought all of Andi’s brothers out of the barn,
not to mention a couple of ranch hands.

“The cougar!” Chad shouted, whipping out
his pistol and aiming it at the lion.

“No Chad, no!” Andi screamed.

The lion chased Henry the rooster behind the barn
just as Chad fired. Bang! The bullet bounced
off the barn, missing the lion by a couple of inches.

“Chad, stop!” Andi demanded, running in
front of her brother. “That’s no cougar, that’s a lion!”

“A cougar and a mountain lion are the
same thing, Andi. Now get out of my way!”

Andi knew that tone only too well,
unless one of her other brothers said something, Chad would not be stopped.Without hesitation she whirled towards
Justin. “Justin, tell him to stop! It’s not a mountain lion or a cougar or a
puma, it’s a lion lion! A real lion!”

By this time Chad had reloaded his gun
and raced around the barn, ready to blow the intruder to smithereens. If Justin
didn’t do something fast Andi’s new animal friend would be a goner!

“What are you talking about Andi? There
are no real lions around here!” Justin exclaimed.

The next instant found Justin and Mitch
on the ground and Andi with her back against the barn wall as Henry the Eighth
ran right underneath Justin’s legs . . . followed by a very hungry lion.

Andi glanced behind her to see Chad
fifteen feet away with his gun loaded and ready to fire. “It’s alright Chad!
He’s tame!” To prove her point she walked right up to the cat and patted him on
the head. “See?”

Chad stared at Andi, then at the lion.
Slowly he lowered his gun and then glared at Andi. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”

Andi grinned sheepishly. She was in
trouble.

*****

It didn’t take Justin long at all to
find out who the lion belonged to. Like Andi had suspected Mr. lion belonged to
the circus. Apparently when the circus train had stopped in Fresno so the
animals could be checked on someone had forgotten to lock the door to the
lion’s car and he had promptly made an exit.

The circus had wired Justin and asked
him to hold onto the lion until they could get there. When Andi’s mother heard
this she’d thrown her hands up in the air and exclaimed, “Where on earth are we
going to put a lion for heaven’s sake? This isn’t a zoo.”

“Seeing how Andi was the one who brought
him to the ranch in the first place I vote that should be her responsibility.”
Chad muttered.

“Hey, it wasn’t my fault. He followed me
home,” Andi argued. “Besides, he was already on the ranch. I just brought him to
show you.”

“And
disobeyed what I told you. You should thank God you’re safe Andi. Any normal
cat would have killed you,” Justin admonished.

Her punishment fit the crime. She wasn’t
allowed to ride Taffy for two weeks. “That ought to teach you not to disobey
like that again,” Chad had grunted. “When Taffy came running home without you
and we realized you’d left you can bet we were ready to scour the whole
countryside. Maybe next time you’ll think twice before taking off like that.”

Now the only loose end to tie up was the
loose end itself---the lion. What were they to do with it?

Mitch voted it could live in the chicken
coop, to which Mother promptly disagreed. Chad wanted to chain it up to a tree
and Justin just wanted to get rid of it.

“Good thing Melinda’s in San Francisco
with Aunt Rebecca. Otherwise she’d be squealing and protesting for days,” Andi had
whispered into Mitch’s ear, to which he’d cracked a grin.

In the end Chad and Mitch made a large
cage for the feline and set some steak on the floor to get him to go in. Mr.
Lion was not happy about the arrangement but didn’t put up much of a fuss as
long as he was fed twice a day.

Two days after the incident found the
circus ringmaster and his daughter in Fresno to collect their lion.

Andi was mucking the stalls when she’d
heard the carriage wheels squeaking into the barnyard, causing her to drop the
pitchfork and race towards the house.

“Is this the Carter ranch?” the tall,
dark-haired man asked as he got out of the carriage and caught sight of Andi.

“Yes it is, sir.” Andi replied. “Are you
here to pick up the lion?”

“You mean Magi is still here?” A girl
about Andi’s age hopped out of the carriage, her red hair bouncing and her
freckled face bursting into a wide grin. “Oh good! I was so afraid he’d escape
before we got here.”

“I am Harold Spencer and this is my
daughter, Amelia,” Mr. Spencer told her, gesturing to himself and then his
daughter. “We were afraid we’d lost Magi forever and were so grateful when
Justin Carter telegramed us he was here. He’s been in our circus for fourteen
years and is very tame.”

“I hope he wasn’t too much trouble, he’s
so sweet and adorable but can be really naughty sometimes!” Amelia exclaimed,
turning to Andi and flashing her a smile.

“I’m Andrea Carter, but you can call me
Andi.” Andi said, smiling back. “And it was a pleasure to have Magi stay at the
ranch with us for a while, he’s been the most unusual guest we’ve ever had!”

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About Andi

I'm the main character in 4 book series: Circle C Beginnings, Circle C Stepping Stones, Circle C Adventures, and Circle C Milestones. I live on a huge cattle and horse ranch in 1880 California. These are my adventures.